Abstract: At the height of the previous Arab Cold War between Egyptian Gamal Abd Al-Nasir and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in the 1960s, the level of hostility between rival camps took several years to be contained. Today, a new Arab Cold War is raging across the Arabian Peninsula without any prospect of resolution in the near future. One camp is led by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, backed up by Cairo and Manama. Surprisingly, Israel is standing firmly on the side of this camp. The target of this alliance is Doha, which has managed to secure the backing of non-Arab regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. This round of inter-Arab rivalry and hostility is not entirely new, but there is an element of unpredictability and danger specific to the current Saudi-Qatari conflict. The entry of three regional powers—Turkey, Iran, and Israel—into this conflict may have a long-lasting impact on the region as a whole.

This new episode of Saudi-Qatari conflict has truly fractured the Gulf—one might even claim beyond repair. It is threatening to become a permanent feature of GCC inter-state relations. The level of hostility no longer contains rhetoric of reconciliation, fraternity, and shared interests; instead, this has given way to slander. The future of the Gulf Cooperation Council is in peril. The consequences are certainly potentially dangerous, especially at a time when there is no alternative regional forum able to play a politically and economically unifying role. With the Arab League becoming completely redundant and defunct, from Rabat to Baghdad, the Arab world is exposed and weakened. If Saudi Arabia had aspired to a leading role, now this has become unlikely, as its regional foreign policy has become aggressive, interventionist, and oppositional. The fact that Saudi Arabia is seen as having shared interests with Israel further complicates the picture and may backfire to the detriment of Saudi Arabia.